Masseria Torre Coccaro, Savelletri Di Fasano

Concierge.com's insider take:

A resort hotel with a real sense of rustic-elegant style was carved out of this 16th-century farmhouse in 2002. Here you'll find slipcovered or button-backed armchairs and wrought-iron chandeliers, shapely wooden commodes and armoires painted in dusty blue, eggplant- or black-stained smooth stone floors, and linen sheets. Two of the 39 rooms are installed in ancient caves (one with its own private orchard and plunge pool); other accommodations are in the tower. When the lakelike swimming pool palls, catch the free shuttle to nearby Torre Coccaro Beach Club, a private white-sand stretch with a Balinese feel, where you'll find wooden lounge chairs; straw palapas; drink, snack, and towel service; a sushi and oyster bar; and a fish restaurant, plus a boat at your disposal, with a skipper who will take you fishing or cook your lunch while you swim in some secluded cove. Another shuttle plies the golf-course route. Back home, you can take cooking lessons from a pair of formidable local housewives, have an agave facial in the Aveda spa, or play cave billiards (the baize table has been set up in a room of the underground olive press). And as you would expect, the restaurant is also molto bene, grazie.